Just a day or two ago, a birder friend of mine who frequents the Palmer Lake Park area, notified me of a most unusual sighting. When I heard the news I could hardly believe it. The particular bird was a species of Owl that is rarely seen, even by the vast majority of bird watchers. But not necessarily for reasons of having a small population. Rather, this Owl is highly nocturnal, very small, and moves very little during the daytime. Like a few other species of Owl it is actually considered "common, but rarely seen." My friend volunteered to meet me at the park today in hopes that we could find it again together. It was 10am and there was a touch of hoarfrost on the trees still left from this morning. It also felt like it might start snowing at any moment. I paced nervously back and forth, mulling over the odds of whether the bird would still be there or had moved on. Finally my friend arrived and we hiked a short distance to the area. There smack dab in front of me was in fact a Northern Saw-whet Owl!
At this time I knew very little about this species other than it was small. Well "small" is a relative term and I wasn't quite fully understanding of just how small this bird actually is. Because of it's "square-ish" head shape and stature, my friend had compared it's size to that of a "can of pop." That comparison was hard to believe, that is until I saw the bird in person. It was in awe over it's diminutive proportions and equally in awe of just how little it moved even though we stood just 12 to 15 feet away from it. It appeared like a statue, with only the very slightest of slow, drawn out movement. In viewing the bird for only a few minutes, I fully understood why this was such a special sighting. Indeed the reason for it's extreme lack of movement was that our "daytime" was it's "nighttime." This bird likely just spent the entire night, and most of it's energy to hunt and feed itself. Now it was time to sleep, and equally important, to remain hidden from other larger predators. With the bird hardly having opened his eyes only halfway just to check us out, we decided to back off and hike around some other areas of the park for a while. At this point, I could have seen absolutely nothing else for the rest of the day and I would have still been on cloud 9 having added this very special bird to my "life list."
It had begun snowing shortly afterward and as we made our way along, we both noticed a Doe underneath a large Buckthorn tree. Scanning through the tall grass, I picked up on a much larger Deer, a big Buck with a large neck and a healthy 8-point set of antlers. He was mostly hidden in the grass and this was the best photo I could muster. It seems like Bucks are harder to come by in the park lately, possibly due to the continued bow hunts sanctioned by the City of Brooklyn Park each Fall. In fact it seems like the Deer population in total has dropped considerably over the last year or so. In watching the Deer, we also noticed a bird perched near the very top of the same tree sheltering the Doe below. In the Fall and Winter time if you see one lone, robin-sized bird perched at the very top of a tree, you should look twice as we both have learned to do. For it could be...and it was this time...a Northern Shrike.
I'll have to double check but I belive this is my first sighting of one this year! This is yet another special bird for all of it's own reasons. Unlike other birds it's size that eat seeds, berries and insects, this bird hunts and eats small rodents and other small birds! This would be comparable to the diet of other raptors, including the Saw-whet Owl seen earlier. However the Northern Shrike is not considered a raptor because it does not "catch" it's prey with it's feet –or talons, which it doesn't have. Instead it "hooks" it's prey, sometimes in mid-air with it's sharp and hooked bill. Further adding to the charm of this killer bird is the fact that it will often "impale" it's victim onto a sharp twig or even barbed wire. This is done for two reasons actually. Probably the most important is that so the Shrike can then pick and eat at it's prey without having to hold it's meal down with it's own feet. Though I have seen them do so. The second reason though is that the Shrike with catch more food than it can consume in a given day and will store, or "cache" it's meals for future consumption. So if you're ever out walking and discover a mouse or vole impaled upon a twig or even barbed wire, it was most likely placed there by a Northern Shrike! Pretty interesting bird huh? Definitely one of my favorite species. With the snow picking up and coming down in big white, fluffy flakes, the two of didn't see much more for the remainder of our hike. Having called it a day, we decided to see if the Saw-whet Owl was still there, so we hiked all the way back.
As testament to how little this bird moves, we found that the little Owl had sat quietly this entire time in the exact same spot and simply let the snow begin to pile up on top of his little head! The more I learned about this Owl's behavior the more fascinating he became. This time he had his eyes open now, at least part way. We stood the same distance away just watching the snow pile up on his head while he did his best impression of an Owl statue.
Something I noticed now that I hadn't before is that the small white markings on the top of his head. They seemed to be designed to resemble the falling snow that was now landing on him. What an interesting bird! I can't possibly give enough thanks to the friend who shared this sighting with me.
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